Gestalt therapy is a form of psychotherapy that emphasizes personal responsibility and focuses on the individual's experience in the present moment, the therapist–client relationship, the environmental and social contexts of a person's life, and the self-regulating adjustments people make as a result of their overall situation. It was developed by Fritz Perls, Laura Perls and Paul Goodman in the 1940s and 1950s, and was first described in the 1951 book Gestalt Therapy.
Overview Edwin Nevis, co-founder of the Gestalt Institute of Cleveland, founder of the Gestalt International Study Center, and faculty member at the MIT Sloan School of Management, described Gestalt therapy as "a conceptual and methodological base from which helping professionals can craft their practice".Nevis, E. (2000). Gestalt therapy: Perspectives and Applications, "Introduction". Edwin Nevis (ed.). Cambridge, MA: Gestalt Press, p. 3. In the same volume, Joel Latner stated that Gestalt therapy is built upon two central ideas: that the most helpful focus of psychotherapy is the experiential present moment, and that everyone is caught in webs of relationships; thus, it is only possible to know ourselves against the background of our relationships to others.Latner, J. (2000). "The Theory of Gestalt Therapy", in Gestalt therapy: Perspectives and Applications, Edwin Nevis (ed.). Cambridge, MA: Gestalt Press. The historical development of Gestalt therapy (described below) discloses the influences that generated these two ideas. Expanded, they support the four chief theoretical constructs (explained in the theory and practice section) that comprise Gestalt theory, and that guide the practice and application of Gestalt therapy.
Gestalt therapy was forged from various influences upon the lives of its founders during the times in which they lived, including the new physics, Eastern religion, existential phenomenology, Gestalt psychology, psychoanalysis, experimental theatre, systems theory, and field theory.Mackewn, J. (1997). Developing Gestalt Counselling. London, UK: Sage publications; Bowman, C. & Brownell, P. (2000) Prelude to Contemporary Gestalt Therapy. Gestalt!, vol. 4, no. 3, available at http://www.g-gej.org/4-3/prelude.html Gestalt therapy rose from its beginnings in the middle of the 20th century to rapid and widespread popularity during the decade of the 1960s and early 1970s. During the 1970s and 80s Gestalt therapy training centers spread globally; but they were, for the most part, not aligned with formal academic settings. As the cognitive revolution eclipsed Gestalt theory in psychology, many came to believe Gestalt was an anachronism. Because Gestalt therapists disdained the positivism underlying what they perceived to be the concern of research, they largely ignored the need to use research to further develop Gestalt theory and Gestalt therapy practice (with a few exceptions like Les Greenberg; see the interview "Validating Gestalt"Validating Gestalt. An Interview with Researcher, Writer, and Psychotherapist Leslie Greenberg by Leslie Grennberg and Philip Brownell; in: Gestalt!, 1/1997. ). However, the new century has seen a sea change in attitudes toward research and Gestalt practice. In March 2020, Vikram Kolmannskog became the world's first Professor of Gestalt Therapy at the Norwegian Gestalt Institute, where he has been teaching and researching since 2015.NGI har fått verdens første dosent i gestaltterapi
Gestalt therapy is not identical to Gestalt psychology, but Gestalt psychology influenced the development of Gestalt therapy to a large extent.Some Gestalt psychologists distanced themselves strongly from Gestalt therapy, like Henle, M. (1978): Gestalt psychology and Gestalt therapy, in: Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences 14 (1), pp. 23–32. Henle, however, restricts herself explicitly to only three of Perls' books from 1969 and 1972, leaving out Perls' earlier work, and Gestalt therapy in general. See Barlow criticizing Henle: Allen R. Barlow: Gestalt Therapy and Gestalt Psychology. Gestalt – Antecedent Influence or Historical Accident, in: The Gestalt Journal, Volume IV, Number 2, Fall, 1981.
Gestalt therapy focuses on process (what is actually happening) over content (what is being talked about). The emphasis is on what is being done, thought, and felt at the present moment (the phenomenality of both client and therapist), rather than on what was, might be, could be, or should have been. Gestalt therapy is a method of awareness practice (also called "mindfulness" in other clinical domains), by which perceiving, feeling, and acting are understood to be conducive to interpreting, explaining, and conceptualizing (the hermeneutics of experience).Brownell, P. (2010) Gestalt Therapy: A Guide to Contemporary Practice. New York, NY: Springer Publishing This distinction between direct experience versus indirect or secondary interpretation is developed in the process of therapy. The client learns to become aware of what they are doing and that triggers the ability to risk a shift or change.Beisser, A. (1970). "The Paradoxical Theory of Change". In J. Fagan & I. Shepherd (eds.). Gestalt Therapy Now: Theory, Techniques, and Applications, pp. 77–80. Palo Alto, CA: Science and Behavior Books
The objective of Gestalt therapy is to enable the client to become more fully and creatively alive and to become free from the blocks and unfinished business that may diminish satisfaction, fulfillment, and growth, and to experiment with new ways of being. For this reason Gestalt therapy falls within the category of humanistic psychotherapies. As Gestalt therapy includes perception and the meaning-making processes by which experience forms, it can also be considered a cognitive approach. Also, because Gestalt therapy relies on the contact between therapist and client, and because a relationship can be considered to be contact over time, Gestalt therapy can be considered a relational or interpersonal approach. As it appreciates the larger picture which is the complex situation involving multiple influences in a complex situation, it can also be considered a multi-systemic approach. In addition, the processes of Gestalt therapy are experimental, involving action, Gestalt therapy can be considered both a paradoxical and an experiential/experimental approach.
When Gestalt therapy is compared to other clinical domains, a person can find many matches, or points of similarity. "Probably the clearest case of consilience is between gestalt therapy's field perspective and the various organismic and field theories that proliferated in neuroscience, medicine, and physics in the early and mid-20th century. Within social science there is a consilience between gestalt field theory and systems or ecological psychotherapy; between the concept of dialogical relationship and object relations, attachment theory, client-centered therapy and the transference-oriented approaches; between the existential, phenomenological, and hermeneutical aspects of gestalt therapy and the constructivist aspects of cognitive therapy; and between gestalt therapy's commitment to awareness and the natural processes of healing and mindfulness, acceptance and Buddhist techniques adopted by cognitive behavioral therapy."
Contemporary theory and practice The theoretical foundations of Gestalt therapy essentially rest atop four "load-bearing walls": phenomenological method, dialogical relationship, field-theoretical strategies, and experimental freedom.Brownell, P. (ed.) (2008). Handbook for Theory, Research, and Practice in Gestalt Therapy. Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. Although all these tenets were present in the early formulation and practice of Gestalt therapy, as described in Ego, Hunger and Aggression (Perls, 1947) and in Gestalt Therapy, Excitement and Growth in the Human Personality (Perls, Hefferline, & Goodman, 1951), the early development of Gestalt therapy theory emphasized personal experience and the experiential episodes understood as "safe emergencies" or experiments. Indeed, half of the Perls, Hefferline, and Goodman book consists of such experiments. Later, through the influence of such people as Erving and Miriam Polster, a second theoretical emphasis emerged: namely, contact between self and other, and ultimately the dialogical relationship between therapist and client.Polster, E. & Polster, M. (1973) Gestalt Therapy Integrated: Contours of theory and practice. New York, NY: Brunner-Mazel. Later still, field theory emerged as an emphasis.Wheeler, G. (1991). Gestalt : A new approach to contact and resistance. New York, NY: Gardner. At various times over the decades, since Gestalt therapy first emerged, one or more of these tenets and the associated constructs that go with them have captured the imagination of those who have continued developing the contemporary theory of Gestalt therapy. Since 1990 the literature focused upon Gestalt therapy has flourished, including the development of several professional Gestalt journals. Along the way, Gestalt therapy theory has also been applied in Organizational Development and coaching work. And, more recently, Gestalt methods have been combined with meditation practices into a unified program of human development called Gestalt Practice, which is used by some practitioners.
Richard G. Erskine, the originator of Integrative Psychotherapy (Developmentally Based, Relationally Focused), has written about the treatment of shame and self-righteousness in "A Gestalt therapy approach to shame and self-righteousness: theory and methods" from his book Relational Patterns, Therapeutic Presence: Concepts and Practice of Integrative Psychotherapy (2015).
Phenomenological method The goal of a phenomenological exploration is awareness. This exploration works systematically to reduce the effects of bias through repeated observations and inquiry.Yontef, G. (2005) Gestalt Therapy Theory of Change, in Gestalt Therapy, History, Theory, and Practice. Ansel Woldt & Sarah Toman (eds). London, UK: Sage Publications.
The phenomenological method comprises three steps:Spinelli, E. (2005). The interpreted world, an introduction to phenomenological psychology, 2nd ed. London, UK: Sage Publications. Applying the rule of epoché – one sets aside one's initial biases and prejudices in order to suspend expectations and assumptions. Applying the rule of description – one occupies oneself with describing instead of explaining. Applying the rule of horizontalization – one treats each item of description as having equal value or significance.
The rule of epoché sets aside any initial theories with regard to what is presented in the meeting between therapist and client. The rule of description implies immediate and specific observations, abstaining from interpretations or explanations, especially those formed from the application of a clinical theory superimposed over the circumstances of experience. The rule of horizontalization avoids any hierarchical assignment of importance such that the data of experience become prioritized and categorized as they are received. A Gestalt therapist using the phenomenological method might say something like, "I notice a slight tension at the corners of your mouth when I say that, and I see you shifting on the couch and folding your arms across your chest ... and now I see you rolling your eyes back". Of course, the therapist may make a clinically relevant evaluation, but when applying the phenomenological method, temporarily suspends the need to express it.Brownell, P. (2009) "Gestalt therapy". In Irmo Marini and Mark Stebnicki (eds) The Professional Counselor's Desk Reference, pp. 399–407. New York, NY: Springer Publishing Co.
Dialogical relationship